


Taco Friday

by mynameisnotthepoint



Category: SKAM (Norway)
Genre: Cooking, Eskild getting out of cooking, Gen, Introspection, Isak before Even, Isak can in fact cook in this, Kollektivet feels, also, and being a chatty loving hyperactive flatmate, but I've seen enough Norwegian ads for taco fredag, disclaimer: I have never made tacos myself, have a taco fredag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23128621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynameisnotthepoint/pseuds/mynameisnotthepoint
Summary: September 2016. Isak has recently moved into the flatshare. Eskild is desperate for some flatmate bonding, so he convinces Linn and Isak to help him with preparing tacos (or make them for him). Featuring a very cheery Eskild, a grumpy Linn, and an Isak who knows his way around the kitchen.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	Taco Friday

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've written about Linn and SKAM in general, but after a few visits to Norway last autumn, I really felt inspired to write again! This is the first of several fic ideas I had :) I hope this gives you some flatshare feels, like I promised in the tags ❤❤❤

“Linn, light of my life!” 

“What, Eskild?”

Linn had rolled herself into her blanket, put a glass of _Fun Light_ mixed with water on her nightstand and a webcomic pulled up on her computer. She had taken to reading every time she could now that she was feeling marginally better. Someday soon, she would have to take up some classes again but for now, she could revel in her comics. They only wanted to be read, not talked to, unlike Eskild.

He had carefully opened her door after his loud announcement, ready to burst out whatever he had cooked up. They had both learned the hard way that she didn’t do well with him suddenly barging in. Also there had been this one unfortunate time when she had just pulled up some porn and had her vibrator ready and Eskild had knocked and not waited for her answer. He had more than gotten his revenge a month later when she got into the bathroom while he was fucking his latest conquest in the shower. So now, they both knocked. Eskild even made an effort to be more quiet around her.

Their new flatmate unfortunately hadn’t gotten a hang of the doors in their apartment yet and made a racket every time he tried to push down the handle. She would have to have a talk with Isak if he kept doing that, but she was currently too tired to muster up the willpower. 

Eskild was a ball of enthusiasm where he stood in her doorway. 

“ _Linni_ ,” he said, “I looked into the fridge and I know our grumpy godchild isn’t being very delightful right now, but I really wanted to do taco Friday this week.”

Linn just stared at him: Eskild and his scatterbrain. She didn’t really know what he wanted from her, and the look on her face must have shown it since he continued: “Anyway, I wanted to get you out of your bed to go shopping with me. We need real spices this time. I’d like to try that chili recipe I told you about and we can’t do that with taco mix.”

Linn sighed. Ever since Noora had moved to London with that drama queen of a boyfriend, Eskild was on a mission to become houseman of the century. She had endured a lot of burned dishes in the past weeks. However, tacos were not very cooking intensive, so she hoped it would end without them chucking half of them away. 

“Also, we really need toilet paper. I should have a talk with our dear pubescent boy–” Eskild interrupted her train of thought.

“Eskild, the guy does have a name, you know.”

He looked a bit taken aback, stopped mid-rant. 

“Alright. Well then, I will have a talk with _Isak_ about the toilet paper. Maybe I can get him to chop some vegetables. I saw him go at his carrots the other day when he made that soup and it didn’t look half bad.”

Linn nodded in acceptance. Eskild had obviously found another project: get a closed-off teenage boy to open up to him. And it looked like he wanted to try it through tacos. If the guy actually knew how to cook, it would drastically increase their chances of having an edible meal. 

Isak had agreed to their joint taco making via group chat – after a link to the recipe and some exclamation marks from Eskild – but was still in school, so Eskild whisked Linn out of her room and into the warm september weather. She hadn’t bothered to change, just put a hoodie that was mostly stainless and her scuffed boots, and was surprised that she didn’t even shiver during the twenty minute walk.

After picking up a basket, they entered the supermarket. Eskild made a whole deal about the fact that they should treat this as easy exercise and had therefore chosen to go to the one that was much further away than their trusty _KIWI_. He hooked his arm into hers, telling her that he would escort her through the shop as she was otherwise bound to stand next to the wall with pick and mix; he was very right. 

She didn’t mind going shopping with her flatmates: it made her go outside and buy some food instead of living off frozen pizzas and instant ramen. With Isak, she had gone exactly once since he had moved in. He had a tendency to run off whenever he thought of something he needed, which was fine by Linn. They had met up after they had paid for their stuff and walked home in comfortable silence. With Noora, they had always stayed closer together, but still done their shopping separately. 

Eskild, on the other hand, commented on everything he saw and liked to have an audience. Somehow, there were always several uni friends of his that were doing their errands at exactly the same time as them and Eskild was more than happy to talk to them, too. So, while Eskild was gossiping about some professor, Linn took a look at their shopping list and very slowly got some of the stuff they needed, dropping the items one by one into Eskild’s basket. Better to run around than listen to whatever Eskild and his acquaintance were excitedly talking about. That way, they had soom amassed a mountain of vegetables, which were sure to last them well into the next week. 

They left Eskild’s acquaintance by the apples. A long debate at the spice rack, where they had argued about what they _actually_ needed, later, they had added cumin, cinnamon, ground ginger and chili flakes to their basket. Linn was sure that there was more needed for a good chili sin carne, but didn’t question Eskild’s methods – she never made food herself and hardly even knew what kinds of spices were on their shelves. 

Before they went to pay, she insisted on buying some more fun light and a small bag of assorted sweets, and suggested she could pay for the food and they could calculate how much Isak and Eskild had to give her at home when they were waiting in line to pay. 

The price on the till only made her wince a little bit – the spices were going to last them for a long time, after all. She was not going to think about the fact that she needed a job soon now that her parents were contemplating whether they should stop supporting her financially. No. Today, they were making tacos.

When they came home, Linn went straight to her room, closing the door behind her. She desperately needed some silence after all the sensory stimulants from their shopping trip. For a few minutes, she just sat on her bed, her back against the wall and her eyes closed. Focused on her breathing. Then, when her head was a bit clearer again, she got out her laptop and started with her comic. Hopefully, she’d be able to finish the current chapter before Eskild came to fetch her for the taco preparations. 

In the end, she managed to get through two, thankful that her concentration had not lessened over the course of reading. Eskild had given her more than an hour as he had finally decided to sit down and write an essay for one of his classes which was due the following week. She knew Eskild liked to go out to distract himself from his uni work; unlike her, he still managed to finish it in time, even with all the procrastination. 

Eskild caught a glimpse of her comic when he came to get her and commented on the art style, which apparently reminded him of some others he had read himself. She just nodded – deep inside, she was happy to have a flatmate that cared about her interests, not that she’d actually tell him directly.

When they entered the kitchen, Isak was already seated on the kitchen chair closest to the wall and cutting up some bell peppers, his phone laid out next to him. Linn nodded at him, impressed that he actually knew how to do that fancy sideways thing where you get little strips rather than cubes of vegetable. 

“Isak, nice to know you got productive!”

Isak scoffed, not looking up from his bell peppers, and said: “You asked me to, didn’t you.”

“And you’re doing great!” Eskild beamed at him. Then, he continued: “Okay… I’ll see what we can do here. Here’s an onion for you.”

Eskild turned to Linn and held one out with a flourish, stared at the net for a bit, contemplating, and then hesitantly added another. 

“Um, two should suffice, I think,” he said. 

Linn was unsure if he was trying to convince her or himself. She rolled her eyes and snatched them out of his outstretched hand before he could change his mind again. After putting them down on the table, making sure they were not about to roll off of it, she got their cutting board from where it was standing next to the sink and a chopping knife from their cutlery drainer which was bursting at the seams. When she had her supplies, she sat down at the table and started cutting.

Eskild had busied himself with measuring out the rice into the pot, all the while texting, so it was almost a wonder he didn’t cause anything to spill. It ended up on the stove without any major damage, which was definitely a win.

She turned to her onions and from the moment she started taking off the peel, the sharp tang of the onions made her eyes water. She tried to suppress the tears by blinking profusely, although her nose started running immediately. From beside her, she heard a cough: Isak sat there, cutting up olives, his eyes slightly watering.

“Oh, my dears! No need to cry!” Eskild joked, enen though the onions were strong enough to make his eyes slightly red as well. 

She finally finished cutting the onions, only a single tear had made it out and slid down her cheek. Instead of rubbing at it with her hand, she went to the sink and washed her hands, cursing when the water came out scalding hot out of the faucet; Eskild always swore that one of these days he would have no feeling left in his hands because of it. When the water had cooled down, she first rhythmically soaped her hands, rinsing them off, and then washed off her face. As the water was running everywhere when she shut off the faucet, she pulled a paper towel from the dispenser above it and dried her hands, arms and face. Her eyes still stung a bit, but she would live.

In the meantime, Eskild had put on some Britney Spears “to lighten the mood” and was getting an avocado out of its shell with a spoon, swaying his hips to the beat. Linn heard a little groan from Isak. 

Then, he cleared his throat, putting down the knife with which he was cutting carrots now.

“Dude, could we maybe cue up some other stuff? Like, just pleasant background stuff?”

“Alright, if you’d rather be boring.” 

Eskild tsked.

“If you must be a heathen, I’ll at least put on some Beyoncé. And no, I am in no way reducing her to background stuff. No music video to watch, as it’s Spotify, so no ogling the queen, young man.”

As a response, he got what Linn had by now labeled the “classic Isak eyeroll” and the music was changed, some earlier Beyoncé album streaming through their speakers. Linn wasn’t really a fan, but her assortment of video game soundtracks and biting Norwegian indie pop wasn’t really appreciated. 

Eskild stated that he wanted some onion for his guacamole, so Linn got up and sprinkled some into his avocado that he had now cut into a bowl. Before he could go and start on anything else, his phone rang. Linn sighed. This always happened. He was such a busy person.

“Noora? How nice to hear from you!”

Eskild winked at Linn and Isak where they were sitting at the table.

“Should we switch to video call? I am cooking with Linni and grumpy Isak.”

He suddenly turned serious.

“Alright. I’ll leave the room.”

Linn caught his eye and raised a brow after she got up to get two cloves of garlic from the kitchen counter.

Eskild held his hand in front of the microphone and whispered: “Trouble with the dumb parents. Will be back.”

He made a kissy face and Linn felt an urge to push him out of the door, but he left before she could. 

She placed the cloves on the table and was about to sit down again to cut them when Isak caught her attention.

“Uh, maybe we could, uh, continue stuff without Eskild?” he asked, adjusting his snapback a little.

“Sure. You can start browning the onions.”

Isak nodded and got out a pan from where they were stored next to the oven. Most of the stuff in there had been Noora’s, so Eskild and Linn had just bought some cheap stuff at IKEA. It had been enough so far and they hadn’t died from peeled-off anti-stick layer.

Linn went back to her garlic, cut it into little sticks and then struggled to get them into even smaller cubes as they kept slipping out of her hands. When she looked up, she saw Isak stealing glances at her while waiting for the pan to heat up. Their stove was not the newest and always took ages to get to the right temperature. Linn had spent many frustrated days waiting for the water to boil so she could put in her instant noodles. Isak seemed to have everything under control though. He even took the rice off the stove to let it cool down, as Eskild had remembered to turn the stove but not switch it off.

The garlic was done and Linn pulled up the recipe to check if they had assembled their ingredients. Eskild had butchered the avocado: the cutting board on the counter was a huge mess. Looks didn’t matter as it would go into the guacamole anyway. On the other side of the table stood a bowl of bell peppers and a bowl of tomatoes. Isak evidently knew how to do this cooking thing.

He had turned back to the stove from where little sizzling sounds could be heard. Linn brought over the onions and went into the cupboards to look for canned black beans and the spices they needed. All of them were located on Eskild’s shelf, which she could barely reach as the guy was rather tall. Isak noticed and helped her get down the cumin and chili flakes which would have to do. 

“Where’s the minced meat?” Isak asked as he sprinkled in the garlic and quickly turned the heat down. Some of the onions were already looking quite brown. 

“We’re doing vegetarian today. Would you mind getting the soy granulate out of the cupboard as well?” Linn pointed to its location.

“Alright,” he said after he took it down and looked at her for more instruction. “Do you know how to do this thing? Otherwise, I can just google it.”

“I’ve done this before, albeit a bit unsuccessfully. You add it later than you normally would the meat so it doesn’t get all dry, I think. So just add all the other ingredients and then the stuff. The recipe is in the groupchat, if you’re unsure.”

Isak held up his phone, the recipe already displayed. Linn nodded and moved around Isak to the other side of the stove so she could get out the big bowl for the salsa. 

They worked together in unison, with her getting to the guacamole and Isak first finishing the fried-up soy granulate with beans and bell peppers, letting it simmer for the time being, and started adding together the ingredients for the salsa. Linn chuckled at the way he just squished the juice out of the lime without using their admittedly rather rickety lemon squeezer. He looked up and puffed out his chest a bit, as if to show that he was the master at squeezing limes. Linn held out her own bowl and gestured at it. He huffed and relented, squishing another lime into it with a bit more difficulty. 

“Fuck,” Isak let out, his eyes on the taco shells that were lying next to the windowsill. “We forgot to preheat the oven.”

“Doesn’t take too long.”

“But the stove…” Isak said.

“Landlord replaced it after it broke last year.”

Isak nodded, impressed, and checked his phone for the right settings before switching it on. 

Linn put the shells on a tray, ready to be put in the oven, and got out some cheese from the fridge and started grating it into a bowl. 

“Should maybe check on the soy stuff,” Isak said, looking at the stove. 

Linn just hummed and finished grating the cheese; she managed not to scrape herself in the process, which she considered a passable victory in the grand scheme of things. Isak got the pan off the stove and placed it on the table on top of their only, slightly battered cork trivet. With all the ingredients laid out on the table after Linn had added the grated cheese, they started gathering up the dirty kitchen utensils and Isak let water into the sink, putting dish soap into it. As washing up was a boring chore, Linn put on her favourite singer and got out their last fresh towel from the cupboard. They really needed to wash those soon. 

When the second song, _Høst_ , was almost done, Isak laughed out loud. 

“I really don’t get the deal with caffè latte, to be honest.”

“I like it. But still, it’s a good song.”

Isak made an affirmative sound before he went over to the table with a cloth to wipe it down. Linn put away the last knife and got out plates and cutlery. The oven had reached the right temperature and they put the taco shells in. Linn showed Isak that she had put on a timer, and they set the table while they waited for the shells to come out of the oven. They both scrolled through their phones to pass the remainder of the time. 

“Very social, the both of you!”

Linn looked up, pulled out her reverie caused by capybaras relaxing in a bath filled with hot water with tangerines bobbing on the surface, where one of them had managed to balance a tangerine on its head. 

“God, Eskild. You scared me,” she complained; the zen she had been feeling from the video had evaporated immediately. 

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” Eskild asked indignantly.

Isak had turned around to look at Eskild, and Linn saw him roll his eyes as she assured Eskild that she was in fact very glad to see him in a dead voice.

Eskild didn’t seem to bothered and whatever it was that Noora wanted to talk about must have been serious, seen as he wasn’t complaining about it. 

Linn’s phone beeped and Isak stood up, taking the dish towel she had hung on the chair next to his after washing the dishes and got the shells out of the oven. 

“You guys really made all of this without me?”

“Yeah,” Isak said, a half-smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. He seemed proud. 

“Couldn’t have done it without him. Think we should have him cook more often.”

“Maybe we should,” Eskild got a devious look in his eyes. 

“No, no. I have school and shit,” Isak said resolutely.

“Alright. Way to be grumpy immediately, you were almost smiling there.”

After the look he got from Isak in return, Eskild added: “Well, it looks very delicious. Linni, what did you make? So I can check for stray nut shells.”

Eskild. Fucking loser. 

“You are not bringing that up. Just fucking sit down.”

“So you want to shut me up with food, I see how it is,” he grinned, but still sat down.

After that, dinner passed quite harmoniously. The speakers looped the same album she had put on earlier and Eskild didn’t complain. A few bites into the meal, he started describing some funny thing a professor of his had done that week and Isak even contributed a story about a teacher as well. It made Linn think of her impending classes retake, but she tried to forget about it and focus on Eskild retelling some tale of his own school days. She grabbed at her second taco shell and piled on a few components. The fear was still there, and she would need to do something about this soon.

Eskild stopped in the middle of his story and looked around as if he noticed Isak and Linn sitting there for the first time since they had started eating. 

“You know I organized this thing. You should both say _thank you, Eskild_.”

Isak rolled his eyes and remained silent. Linn applauded silently by putting her two pointer fingers together.

“But I’m really enjoying this. So, instead, thank you two for indulging me.”

He looked at both of them with a warm look in his eyes. At heart, Eskild was wonderful, no matter how much he grated her nerves at times.

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it. Good thing that Noora called, huh? How do you feel about cooking? Are you as avoidant as Eskild, as pragmatic as Isak, always using recipes, or just not bothered enough to cook? 
> 
> All comments and kudos are dearly appreciated ❤


End file.
